Sheikh Khatib: The Israeli regime's plan to split the Aqsa Mosque will fail

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib, deputy head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, said the Israeli occupation regime would never succeed in his attempts to divide the Aqsa Mosque.

In a statement to the Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage, Sheikh Khatib warned the Israeli regime that the Muslims would respond strongly if it tried to take such step.

The Sheikh hailed the massive attendance of Palestinian worshipers at the Aqsa Mosque as "blessed" and expressed his belief that the Muslims around the world would wish to have the opportunity to feel the spiritual atmosphere at the Mosque.

"Despite the occupation and the horror of his actions, constraints and restrictions, our people keep flocking to the holy Aqsa Mosque in Ramadan and this is not just a religious message, but it is also a clear political message to the occupation saying to it 'do whatever you like and impose as much restrictions as you like, you cannot take us away from the Aqsa Mosque,'" Sheikh Khatib highlighted.

The Israeli Knesset has declared its intention to table a new draft law soon proposed by its right-wing member Arieh Eldad calling for dividing the Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews, and specifying days for their visits as is the case in the Ibrahimi Mosque of Al-Khalil city.

For its part, the Islamic educational, scientific and cultural organization (ISESCO) called on its member states to hasten to confront the criminal Israeli plans to remove the Aqsa Mosque from its place.

This came in its press release on Wednesday in response to the latest remarks by the right-wing Knesset member Arieh Eldad who had called for relocating the Aqsa Mosque instead of demolishing it.

ISESCO described these remarks as "extremely grave" and incitement to a terrorist attack against the holy Mosque.

The Palestinian Return Centre is an independent consultancy focusing on the historical, political and legal aspects of the Palestinian Refugees. The organization offers expert advice to various actors and agencies on the question of Palestinian Refugees within the context of the Nakba - The catastrophe following the forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948 - and serves as an information repository on other related aspects of the Palestine question and the Arab-Israeli conflict. It specializes in the research, analysis, and monitoring of issues pertaining to the dispersed Palestinians and their internationally recognized legal right to return.